Notes on Some Movies

Now that we've hit the summer primetime skids, the spousal unit and I are blazing through our Netflix queue. The past 2 nights, we've watched Notes on a Scandal and Babel.

I have yet to watch The Queen, so I can't say how Judi Dench's performance in Notes stacked up Oscarwise to Helen Mirren. But there's something to be said about Dame Dench when Cate Blanchett's affair with a 15 year old isn't the creepiest aspect of the movie.

Babel made it a Blanchett twofer, though Cate graces the screen for far less time than in Notes. This was a film of bad decisions and tragic outcomes. I wanted to wring Gael Garcia Bernal's character's sexy neck. The film was beautifully made, and the cinematography, score, and storylines kept me riveted. I found this film to be far superior to Crash, which followed the same interwoven storyline format.

So far I've seen two of the 3 films from the much-touted "3 Amigos" filmmakers - Babel and Children of Men. I only hope that Pan's Labyrinth is more positive than the first two, both of which left me feeling quite depressed. Even eye candy like Brad Pitt, Bernal, and Clive Owen in Children weren't enough for me to overcome the feeling of despair imparted by the respective plots.

Long Overdue - Food Meme

My friend Tanya tagged me for this post eons ago and I've been mindblowingly busy so I haven't done it. But now that Sarah Ashlee's tagged me too, I guess I'd better get on it.

The rules:

1. Add a direct link to your post below the name of the person who tagged you. Include the city/state and country that you are in.

Nicole (Sydney, Australia)
velverse (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
LB (San Giovanni in Marignano, Italy)
Selba (Jakarta, Indonesia)
Olivia (London, England)
ML (Utah, USA)
Lotus (Toronto, Canada)
tanabata (Saitama, Japan)
Andi (Dallas [ish], Texas, USA)
Todd (Lousiville, Kentucky, USA)
miss kendra (Los Angeles, California, USA)
Jiggs Casey (Berkeley, California, USA)
Tits McGee (New England, USA)
Joe (NE Tennessee, USA)
10K Monkeys (Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA)
Big Stupid Tommy (Athens, Tennessee, USA)
Newscoma (Weakley County, Tennessee, USA)
Finnspace (Springfield, Tennessee, USA)
LeBlanc (Lewisburg, Tennessee, USA)
I Am DisHeartened by My Jetta (Nashville, TN, USA)
Tanya Espanya(Toronto, ON, CA)

2. List out your top five favorite places to eat at your location.

I have sadly not been to many of these places lately. Need to get out more.

Carmine's on Penn - Family style Italian, fun neighborhood, a Denver institution.

Lime - Trendy, inexpensive Mexican in Lower Downtown that outshines most of the sad excuses for Mexican food here. Love the homemade tequila shot they give you alongside their sinful flour tortilla chips and salsa.

Jerusalem - Some of the best falafel I've had anywhere. Eternally busy dive near DU.

Jax- Cozy fish house with locations in LoDo and Boulder. Freshest seafood in town.

Flagstaff House - Go here when someone else is paying or it's a super special occasion. Fine dining with knockout views from Flagstaff Mountain in Boulder.

I also have to give honorable mentions to Sushi Den, The Med, Dozens (I love breakfast!), and Jack N Grill for when I miss New Mexican food.

And because I'm lame, I'm not tagging anyone. But feel free to consider yourself tagged if you've read this and you want to extend the chain.

Tidbits

Stopped at the training school yesterday to drop off Sasha's heartworm pill. Couldn't see her as they didn't want to distract from training. But word is she's sit/stay and heel on command now, and working on up/down, inside/outside, and return to heel. It's going to be very cool to get her back trained. The log had a comment that she bolted after a rabbit one day while training on return to heel. So it's nice to hear that she's having a little fun there too.

Not much of a holiday this weekend. Working on getting the house ready to put on the market. We've had a sump pump put in and the bugger is running every 15 minutes. I think we're literally collecting the entire neighborhood's runoff. Can't wait until that's someone else's problem.

I do get to plant some purty flowers in containers. Running off now to go buy them.

Hope you are all enjoying your holiday!

And if you have to fly through Atlanta, beware the men's bathrooms.

Hi Mom!

So I think the day spent introducing Mom to email and internet basics was a success.

We'll see. I've pointed her to my blog. If she mentions this post, I'll know she made it here successfully.

So...hi Mom. Love ya!!!

Columbus was beautiful today. Couldn't ask for nicer weather. Too bad my client is such a pain in the ass.

Random 10

Only The Good Die Young - Billy Joel
Smiling Up The Frown - Agents Of Good Roots
No More Words - Berlin
It's On - Korn
Deserve It - Madonna
Starlight - Muse
Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley
The Union Forever - The White Stripes
The Vampires Of New York - Marcy Playground
Burning Dog - Sugar Ray

A nice list, if I do say so myself.

I just can't seem to slow down. Tonight we're running to Costco and picking up the house because it's the only free time we have.

Tomorrow - yard work, driving range, haircut, laundry.

Sunday - off to my mom's to try to help her figure out her computer. I'll try to blog for you from then.

Pictures from Florida are on their way. Back to Columbus for work next week.

Peace out.

Incarcerated

On Tuesday, just a day after returning from our wedding trip in Florida, we dropped Sasha off at a 4 week board and train obedience program. I know it's going to do great things for her, but the spousal unit and I miss her immensely already. The house is so quiet now! Ripley, on the other hand, is thrilled to be back on top of the petting and attention totem pole. This is the closest they've ever been to buddy buddy.

Poor Roscoe has a stufffed up, snotty nose. He had a swollen bump on one side so we suspect that snapping at yellowjackets may have paid off in an unexpected way for him. At first it was just noisy breathing (I dubbed him Dog Vader), but then it progressed to sneezing and flying mucus. Fun stuff. Good thing Benadryl works for dogs too.

And to leave you with some fun....you think driving in Manhattan or downtown San Francisco is bad? Check this out.

Some people's children

So last week on my business trip I got stuck in a middle seat towards the back of the plane. Having achieved frequent flyer status for the past 5 years, I've become accustomed to aisle or middle seats in the front of the coach section, exit row seats, and the occasional first class upgrade. I forgot what it was like to rough it in steerage.

After wedging myself and my things into my meager alloted space, I watched a couple with a baby and a toddler seat themselves in the aisle in front of me. This appeared to be the first time they had flown together as a family. The excited toddler was given the window seat and promptly barraged his father with questions.

I steeled myself for a stressful flight, consoled slightly by the fact that I needed to work and wouldn't be able to relax anyway. To my delight, the father pulled out a portable DVD player to keep his young son entertained.

The catch? He allowed the boy to use it without headphones. Everyone in the vicinity was treated to the sounds of Curious George and Blue's Clues throughout the flight.

Given that I was focused on making some sense out of a very poorly written document I was reviewing, I can't say that the noise really bothered me. But I did find it incredibly rude and ironic that this couple decided that the best way to keep their son out of their hair was to disturb all the passengers around them.

It could have been worse, I guess. They could have played Barney.

Wedding Bell Blues

Not blues, actually. Greens.

Going to a wedding in Florida this weekend. This is the dress I'll be wearing. The best part? It has pockets!!!



Would love for someone to pick out some shoes to go with. The wedding itself is on the beach, with the reception afterwards at a beach hotel. I'm thinking black to go with the sash and halter.

Are the wedges I just bought not beachy enough? I'm thinking probably not. If I went with a shoe like that I'd go barefoot at the ceremony and only wear the shoes at the reception.

How I feel

With all I've had on my plate lately, I feel like this kitty.

Thanks to my new fluff link on the right.

Slammed

Sorry kiddos. Work is chaotic. House is chaotic. Leaving for Florida on Thursday. Hope to get to blog before then.

Miss you!

I on Iraq

The ubiquitous clash of the parties happening so visibly lately has really made me start to think about Iraq. Not that I hadn't before - it's always there below the surface, pulsing away like an infected wound that just won't heal. But I'm at the point where I actually want to verbalize.

We shouldn't have started the war in the first place. Certainly not under false intelligence. At the time I didn't agree with what we were doing even if the intelligence was good. If Saddam had intended to use the illusory WMDs against the US, he would have done so before 2003. True, he wasn't following the agreement he'd made with the UN by not submitting to required inspections, and that was a problem that should have been dealt with. But it wasn't a threat that justified a war.

But we went in. We shredded the country to bits. And yes, ding dong, the dictator's dead. We drew in terrorists that want to kill Americans and don't seem to have a problem with taking a few Iraqis along for the ride. I'm convinced that the real reason we're still there is so that Islamic terrorists have some Americans to target without having to set foot on our own soil. Bush will never admit publicly to that, because that's not supporting the troops, and he's not a Democrat.

Now if it were just the American military at risk, I frankly wouldn't have a problem with this. That's not an easy thing to admit to, but it's pragmatic. People who go into the armed service are expected to protect our country, and risking their lives is a clear part of that arrangement. And we are at war with a significant portion of the Islamic world, which was the case well before Dubya was elected. Maybe if the Repubs would have been more concerned about that and less interested in where Clinton was putting his dick, we could have focused on that and saved some lives. Alas, I digress.

But it's not just our troops lives that we're risking here. It's Iraqi people too - policemen and teachers and doctors and mothers and children. And I can't stand behind that.

The spousal unit argues that he doesn't pay his government to be ethical. I understand where he's coming from, but I just can't stomach that position.

So, I say let's get the heck outa Dodge. Honestly, I believe most of the bombings that are so common now will taper off when we're gone. And if they don't, well, we can go back. I think that the Iraqi infrastructure still needs triage and will for some time, but that doesn't have to be handled entirely by the US Military.

Shoes!!!!!

Since I've been homebound and thus unable to justify my crazy shoe-shopping habit of late, I haven't been posting about sweet zapatos . However, my work trip this week meant that I had a good excuse to wrassle up a new pair. This combined with Zappos new free overnight shipping option sent me to heaven.

These are what I picked out. I wore them to the office today, and though they do need just a touch of breaking in, they are mostly comfy and they look divine.


Thanks to Cat and Barb for reminding me that I've been so remiss in the shoe blogging arena.

Made up word of the day

I haven't done this in awhile. Today's word is:

blogtied - the act of employer blocking access to websites such as blogspot, thinking that they can force their employees into actually doing work.

I am blogtied while I'm at my current customer's office. Strangely enough, I do seem to be getting more work done. I can't wait to get home.